SAPS Attempt To Illegally Ban Protest In Durban

The Abahlali baseMjondolo branch in the
Palmiet Road shack settlement in Clare Estate, Durban, has
decided to march on the Ward 23 councillor, Themba Mtshali.
They have been supported in this decision by all other
Abahlali baseMjondolo branches in the ward.

Mtshali is one
of the shack dwellers who became a councillor in the last
local government elections as part of the ANC's strategy of
trying to contain our movement – a strategy that has
included serious repression and intimidation, attempts at
co-option, channelling our victories through ANC structures
and bringing non-AbM shack dwellers into positions of
leadership in the local party structures. However like all
other councillors Mtshali is remoted from above and is only
an instrument for implementing top down decisions by the
party and municipal structures. He does not engage people
democratically. In fact it is impossible to even arrange a
meeting with him. He has failed the people of Ward 23 and in
particular he has failed the poor of Ward 23. Even though he
was poor himself a few years ago he is now a councillor and
so, as with all councillors, we are not worthy of respect in
his eyes because we are poor.

The march has been planned
for Friday 7 December 2012. The march will begin at the
Palmiet Road shack settlement, move down O'Flaherty Road,
and onto Quarry Road and then end at the councillor's office
in the Aquarius building on Mountbatten Drive. Our demands
will be issued to the councillor and to the premier. We have
made it clear to the premier's office that we have no faith
in the office of the Speaker of the eThekwini Municipality
and that this is why we are jumping straight to the
provincial level in this matter.

The demands that will be
issued by this march fall under three categories:

1. That
basic services like water, sanitation and electricity must
immediately be provided to all shack settlements in the
ward. 2. That negotiations must immediately begin to secure
land and decent housing in the ward for all shack dwellers
living in the ward. We will not accept forced removal to
transit camps in the human dumping grounds outside the city.
3. That all development and decision making in the ward must
happen in a genuinely participatory and democratic
manner.

We know the law governing the right to organise
protests very well and we have complied with all of the
necessary steps to organise a legal march. We also know all
of the old dirty tricks that are used by the police and
politicians to deny people the right to march or to delay
the provision of this right until the very last minute in
order to frustrate mobilisation.

We gave written notice of
our intention to hold a march on 19 November 2012. We
received a stamped acknowledgement of the receipt of our
letter of notice. When we received no reply we followed this
letter up with a number of phone calls. We were told that
there was no record of our letter. We then wrote a new
letter and when we delivered that letter we were told that
in fact our first letter had been found. Then we received a
phone call saying that we need to direct our application for
permission to march to an office in the Outer West. The
numbers that we were given were never picked up. These
tactics of 'losing' notifications, suddenly changing the
office at which notifications must be given, giving phone
numbers that are never answered and so on are all typical
ways in which attempts are made to frustrate the right to
protest. These are all old tricks. Lately a new tactic has
been to say that permission cannot be given for a march
unless the people who that march is protesting against or
making a demand to have agreed to accept the memorandum.
This is completely illegal. In fact the law says that we
only have to inform the City that we will be marching –
there is not even any legal requirement to apply for
permission and there is no such thing in the democratic law
as a permit to march. That was a requirement of apartheid
law but municipalities just carry on as if the law was never
changed.

Yesterday an officer from the Sydenham Police
station called Ntombenhlophe Zothwa, the march convenor, and
asked her to come to the police station. He also said that
he was aware that this was an IFP march. He gave his name as
Solomon.

Ntombenhlophe also received another call to
attend a Section Four meeting today at 9. AbM attended this
meeting. It was chaired by Captain Govender from the Metro
Police. She was a good chair. She was fair, polite and
respectful to everybody. Officer Solomon was also at the
meeting though. He said that the march could not go ahead as
we have not received a permit from the Reservoir Hills
shopping mall which is on the route of the march. He also
said that we need a permit to march from the owner of the
Aquarius building where the councillor has his office. The
march will only pass the shopping mall (which was built on
the site of a shack settlement that was illegally demolished
a few years ago) and it will not go inside. But now we are
being told that we must get permission from the owners of a
building that we will pass on our march as well as the owner
of the building in which the councillor has his office.
There is nothing like this in the law. And our movement has
never once damaged any building, or caused any other damage
to property, on any of our marches. We have been violently
attacked by the police but we have never caused any damage
to any property or harmed any person on any one of our legal
marches. Saying that we cannot organise a legal march unless
the property owners give us permission is a new addition to
the long history of dirty tricks used to deny us our right
to protest.

Also this morning S'bu Zikode received a call
from Nigel Gumede, who is head of housing in the eThekwini
Municipality. In the past he has made an open death threat
against S'bu. However today he was polite. He was saying
that they should meet and that there was no need to march as
they could sit and talk. He also said that he knew that this
would be an IFP march. S'bu told him that all attempts to
talk had failed and that the march was going ahead. He also
said that the movement has a long experience of this very
old dirty tactic of saying that there is really a third
force or a political party behind protests. When AbM marches
on the ANC they often say that the march is really organised
by the IFP, Cope or the DA. When we march on the IFP or the
DA they say that the march is really organised by the ANC.
None of the political parties can understand that as poor
people we can think and act for ourselves. They are all
failing to understand the difference between being poor and
being stupid. S'bu explained this clearly to Gumede and told
him that this march would be an AbM march.

We wish to make
it very clear that:

1. This attempt to deny us our basic
democratic right to protest is totally illegal. 2. We will
not accept this attempt to deny us our basic democratic
rights. 3. The march will be going ahead. 4. If necessary we
will take legal action to secure our right to march and if
necessary we will march in defiance of any unlawful bans on
our right to protest.

We also wish to note that it is
clear that Officer Solomon is clearly being used by
politicians to undermine the rule of law in order to deny us
our basic democratic rights. The SAPS in Sydenham have done
a lot to improve their relationship with the poor
communities in the area, and with our movement, since the
new commanding officer, De Villiers, was appointed. However
if they wish to be credible then Solomon must be
isolated.

We also wish to note that the Premier's Office
has acknowledged receipt of our letter and that we have had
good co-operation from that office.

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